Stop being hyperactive

 Anyone with a hyperactive child knows how wearing it can be to have to cope with the demands such a child can make on a regular and continuing basis.

Well, email and continual zoom meetings have been like that for many remote workers.  Everyone gets copied into emails or invited to zoom meetings which are of only peripheral interest or relevance.

If they decide not to engage with an email thread or a meeting, they get FOMO (Fear of missing out) and anxious.  Their stress levels rise. Their productivity drops.  

If they do engage, they waste time on irrelevant correspondence and inappropriate meetings. Their productivity drops.

Yet, many firms have let this happen for over 12 months.  

Few firms have issued guidelines about copying people into emails or inviting people to online meetings - even when they have seen email threads and zoom meetings which clearly have too many people in them. 

If not careful, this will continue as people return to the workplace. Productivity will be sucked out of the organisation into these communication tasks.

You should treat the return to the workplace as an opportunity to issue (or re-issue) guidance and tame the beast.

Control people’s FOMO and you control their anxiety. You make them more productive. And it costs you nothing. 

Start now!